CDC: Addiction risk outweighs use of opioid painkillers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention condemned the ill effects of pain medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin on March 15 in its first-ever guidelines for prescribing such pills.

The agency said it took action against overprescription as a step to combat the Untied States' increasing opioid epidemic. Opioids include many addictive painkiller medications as well as illegal drugs such as heroin.

As patients become dependent on painkillers, many have turned to heroin as a cheaper alternative to satisfy their addiction.

In this Jan. 18, 2013 photo, Morphine Sulfate, OxyContin and Opana are displayed for a photograph in Carmichael, California.

Image: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Around 2.5 million Americans are addicted to opioids, federal officials say, and 500,000 Americans have died of an opioid overdose over the last 15 years.

“We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently,” CDC Director Tom Frieden and Debra Houry, director of the agency's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, wrote on Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. "We hope to see fewer deaths from opiates. That's the bottom line."

In this Feb. 11 photo, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Image: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

The CDC says doctors should only prescribe painkillers in the lowest doses and for the least amount of time possible in order to avoid patient dependency, though it makes exceptions for those going through cancer treatment and other grave ailments.

The new guidelines recommend patients try ibuprofen before leaning on opioids. And when doctors must prescribe opioid painkillers, the guidelines say that a prescription of three days or fewer should suffice. Doctors have often provided patients with opioid prescriptions that last for weeks.

“The risks will outweigh the benefits for the vast majority of patients," Frieden said.

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